Unintended consequences

Columnist

Every time I visit a Third World country, I'm impressed by the resourcefulness of humans; how an ice-cream bucket will gain new life as a scoop for grain or rice bags become raincoats for hipster tourists' children.

I'm sure when those at Raleigh sat down to design their bicycle chains, they'd never have predicted the links being used as the feet in scrap-metal statues of the Predator in Vietnamese knick-knack stores.

Unintended uses for products abound: old beer cans are also fashioned into children's toys, colourful bottle tops are used in floor mosaics and car tyres are stacked to form retaining walls.

Closer to home, I bet the manufacturers of mannitol, an obscure diuretic, probably didn't foresee their product being embraced by drug dealers as a cutting agent for cocaine and heroin.

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I've grown to love the "unintended" because it speaks to us of the fruitlessness, unpredictability and beauty of humanity's attempts to control our world.

Perhaps my favourite example is the moulded plastic side mirrors on cars and how they've inadvertently become one of the favourite habitats of spiders.

No matter what country you visit you can walk the streets and see filigrees of webs festooning mirrors, testament to the unintended arachnid-friendly-genius of car engineers.

Of course, the unintended can also be disastrous as illustrated by this country's history with the cane toad and rabbit - animals introduced with best intentions that have now become destructive pests.

Equally calamitous from a cultural perspective was our infamous 10BA 150 per cent tax break for film production in the 1980s. Designed to stimulate our movie industry it produced some of the greatest turkeys known to turkeydom.

But I'm being optimistic.

While it may be difficult to find positives in the furious stand-off between North and South Korea - the ironically named Demilitiarised Zone between the two countries (actually one of the most heavily militiarised locations on earth) has now become a flourishing refuge for increasing numbers of Asiatic black bear because humans can't get at them.

The sacking of Hindu temples by Muslim invaders led by Mahmud of Ghazni 1000 years ago was probably not a glorious event from the Indian people's perspective, but some monetary historians claim the immense amount of looted gold put into circulation kicked off one of the first global economic booms.

The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami devastated Aceh in Indonesia but it was also instrumental in ending the 29-year-old civil war between the Free Aceh separatist movement and the government, who signed a peace deal in 2005.

As we've lately discovered, Lance Armstrong's use of steroids and HGH during his career actually may have been the cause of his famous cancer but there's no denying this unintended affliction and his subsequent recovery inspired millions of sufferers they can also beat the disease.

The "Law of Unintended Consequences" is thus almost perfect in its inability to be anticipated; it is the leering face of chaos.

The 18th-century Scottish economist Adam Smith called it the "invisible hand" that guides the butcher, baker, and brewer to produce our dinner, not out of altruism but self-interest.

In that regard, it'll be interesting to see now how the US - still to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases - will react to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy last month.

Days after it tore through the north-east of the country, Bloomberg's Businessweek magazine bore the cover-line "It's Global Warming Stupid", leaving little doubt the publication believes it's in America's self-interest to start taking that issue seriously.

60 comments so far

I wish I could work out a way of recycling Peter Doyle into a lampshade

Commenter

randomguy

Location

creative workshop

Date and time

November 27, 2012, 7:49AM

G’day, Rando, if you watch all 3 videos below from start to finish, I’ll jump in a recycling compactor and be up and running as a lampshade by 9pm tonight.

The Truth About the West Bank: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=XGYxLWUKwWo&feature=fvwp

The Truth About the Refugees: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_3A6_qSBBQ

The Truth About the Peace Process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAuBc_cbXo0&feature=relmfu

Commenter

Pete

Date and time

November 27, 2012, 2:57PM

This blog is actually very apt. Last night my ex girlfriend (who I am still friends with) came around a bit upset about something someone had said to her. She is also planning on spending a few year overseas next year and is a bit daunted by what that involves and the planing of this trip was adding to her anxiety.

As I was trying to give her words of comfort, she mentioned a quote from your book "No tattoos before you're 30" which we both read when I first bought a year ago.

Anyway, long story short, your intention when you wrote that book was not to comfort my ex, but last night your book was very successful at doing so.

It's a great book Sam with very good advice.

Commenter

Scoby

Date and time

November 27, 2012, 8:40AM

Sam has written another coffee table book you should probably take a look at :)

Commenter

tom

Location

sydney

Date and time

November 28, 2012, 8:06AM

Funny you should mention 'No tattoos' - I was bought it as a gift at my anti-baby-shower on the weekend, by a friend who has heard me bang on about this blog, and Sams recent novels - I thought it was a perfect gift for a parent to be,I did wonder if there were any words of advice Sam would change now he is actually a parent? (I don't think he was when he wrote the book).

Commenter

Katea

Location

Sydney

Date and time

November 28, 2012, 10:58AM

What on earth is an "anti-baby-shower"?

Commenter

jools

Location

Sydney

Date and time

November 28, 2012, 12:46PM

Here is an unintended consequence. I like reading the comments, but hate making comments myself. Even in real life I would prefer to listen to people talk than have to talk myself.

Commenter

First time

Location

Panelvan

Date and time

November 27, 2012, 9:15AM

Unintended uses...you mean like someone thinking "how can I keep my feet warm?" and the resulting sock being used as onanistic prophylactics?

Unintended consequences can be a massive problem. They usually occur because people don't ask enough questions, such as: What will happen to this waste? How else can this be used? If we prevent this one thing, what is the likely reaction to that?

Which is the main problem with science and technology; people don't ask enough questions. "Hey science, how can we make these goods faster?" Science invents the steam engine, and cities get clouded in smog. "Hey science, is there a better material for making this?" Science provides certain chemical processes, and the waste is dumped in the river turning it into toxic sludge.

If only people asked: "Hey science, what's the best way to do this, bearing in mind people will still want to live here?" and lots of follow up questions.

Commenter

JEQP

Date and time

November 27, 2012, 9:49AM

How true, how true ... meanwhile, I guess I'll just get on with it.

Commenter

JZCarr

Location

Sydney

Date and time

November 27, 2012, 11:02AM

Necessity is the mother of invention. When we need it then someone will create the solution. No use building something no-one wants or doesn't know they need until they need it.

Wait until things get really or far too expensive and then someone will come up with the solution.